Ancient Lesson Revisited

I am the Heart of Darkness.
I know no fear; but rather I instill it in my enemies.
I know the power of the Dark Side.
I am the fire of hate; and the universe bows before me.
I pledge myself to the Darkness.
For I have found true life, in the death of the Light.

Lesson One: I am the Heart of Darkness

We, as Sith, are, in the end, beings of Darkness. You cannot get around it. We see all sides, yet we choose to dwell within the Darkness. We make the heart of Darkness ourselves, and through this, we gain much power and strength. This phrase portrays the inner connection every Sith should have with the Darker aspects of the Force. We feel the Darkness in our very hearts, our minds, and our spirit. We allow Darkness to be a part of our lives, and through this connection, we gain an immeasurable amount of knowledge. I have grown a sense of knowingness in the universe, as I lack the restraints that many have upon them when dealing with the pure essence of the Force. I call upon the Darkness within my very heart and soul while I meditate, and through these things, I progress even further in my studies. Knowledge is the key to much of the Sith’s life. Without it, we would never find ourselves seeking it.

Lesson Two: I know no fear; but rather I instill it in my enemies.

As Sith, we must know our own strengths. It is also important to note that we must know how our strengths apply to the enemy. It is your choice to choose who the enemy is. I cannot help you decide that, but when you do, you must be able to strike fear into the enemy. The strongest attack that we can give is through our own minds. When I enter a conflict, I lead a psychological war, one which leaves the enemy in a state of fear. These usually end up over without any contact. A psychological attack is very strong, and it is a skill that you can only achieve when you have been disassociated from the rest of society for long enough.

You have to know how to instill fear into an enemy. It is an ability that is a must for any practicing Sith. Several ways you can do this are: 

1. Be physically intimidating.

2. Be too cool, or emotionless. Stay calm, and remain confident. This sounds Jedi-ish, but it is a rather scary sight to see someone that is confident in themselves now-a-days. It scares people a lot.

3. Be crazy. Last resort. Go berserk when fighting, giving in to every emotion, feel the adrenaline. This is only in worse case scenarios. This could be considered “Dark Rage.” To train for this, practice getting extremely angry, but not at anything in particular, just feel Anger as an emotion. Feel it course through your body. This is our last resort.

Lesson Three: I know the power of the Dark Side.

The Dark Side is our medium of power. We use it to control, and subdue any enemies. The Dark Side is where anyone who is Sith is drawn. It empowers us and calls us like the Light Side beacons the Jedi. Or the medium beacons the Grey Jedi. Or the whole of the Force beacons Shadow Jedi. It is a part of who we are.

The Dark Side represents a true innate following of your own instincts. We follow how we feel. That does not mean that we go around doing everything on impulse, but we do let our own emotions and feelings affect how we act in a certain situation.

For instance: You are walking down the street. A kid rides by you on a bike. As you continue to walk down the street, several other, younger kids run by you. You ask “What is going on?”

The kids stop and say: “He stole his bike!”
Just then, the boy on the bicycle rides by again.
You have several choices now, which are:
A. Stop the kid by grabbing the bike, possibly hurting him.
B. Ask the kid to stop.
C. Let the kid ride away, enjoying the suffering of the other children.

A Sith would give into his instincts. A Sith would act out the best he would see fit to. The first choice was the answer of a Sith, while the last one was the answer of a sadistic and deranged person.

As you can see, Sith tend to act out on impulse, but this impulse is different for everyone. I believe that the Force speaks through us when we act without thinking. We do not seek pain and suffering. We seek to follow the Force by Darker means that the Jedi. We are at home in the Darkness; it is our own place of solaced. 

Lesson Four: I am the fire of hate; and the universe bows before me.

This is possibly the only thing that I disagree with in this code. Sith do not seek the subservience of the universe. We may control the Force, yes, but we do it in order to further our own path. Many fail to realize that you cannot have the universe bow before you. Even Sith should realize this, as it will keep you from a lot of discontent, but if you still wish to seek true control, then I suggest you find a dark place and meditate on what you truly wish to achieve. This is one of the more dangerous things that you could ever try to do, spiritually. The Force has a nasty way of coming back at you for such things.
 
Now that I have said what needed to be said, I will continue the lesson:

“I am the Fire of Hate.” Sith have ultimate control over their emotions. They utilize them in such a way that they become a very hard being to confront. I cannot stress enough that we do not seek to get rid of our emotions, only to rid ourselves of the control our emotions have on our own lives. We use them as our own personal weapons.

Lesson Five: I pledge myself to Darkness.

The Sith are dedicated to the Darkness. We uphold the tenets presented here. In order to attain the Truth, we follow this path, but not in the same ways. Every Sith creates his own path, this is just a rough base to organize it around.

 Lesson Six: For I have found true life, in the death of the Light.

The Sith practice true freedom of the Force. This freedom will never be overthrown.

-Vallen, Sith Lord

No Unified Method

Self interest is probably the one unifying glue that knits us into a common group. It just like how Jesus is the unifying glue that knits the assorted sects of Protestants and Catholics into the common group of Christianity. Individuals and smaller groups may have a common point they agree upon, but the things they do and the articles of faith they believe, can not only vary widely, but at times outright contradict each other.

So it is with the Dark Side.

There are those like me who embrace magic and esotera, those who are atheist, and those who are Christian. There are those who are solitary individuals and those who belong to a clan or coven. Some of us believe “A” to be the most important aspect of our path, while others believe it is “X,Y,Z”, and still others hold that to place anyone thing as the most important is to miss the point entirely.

It is a path where one learns to see the borders of the boxes we’re conditioned to live in, to see the actual self, to determine to what extent we play by the Rules imposed by others, and so on. How this knowledge is shared, taught, imparted, and learned varies from person to person, group to group.

You’re asking for us to tell you what the Unified Methods are, but there AREN’T any. You might as well try to herd cats. We’re vastly different in the way we think, than Lightsiders, in this regard.

We’ll use a common methodology, if it suits our purpose or whim. We’ll cast it aside just as readily if it no longer is useful. We’ll try one approach, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll put our efforts into finding something that does work.

Newcomers to the path often have expectations which aren’t necessarily going to be of benefit to them “in the real world.” Part of our journey is learning to temper our desires within the constraints of society as a whole, of making mindful choices—learning to look ahead to potential consequences of actions we take. And learning what we are willing to sacrifice on our alters of self-interest.

There is a lot of practicality involved. Many people in the Dark Side do public service; they volunteer to help the needy, and other such things. If it benefits the whole, chances are that it improves our lot in life too.

But do we have a uniform code of beliefs? A uniform guideline for thoughts and ethics? A uniform method of training? No. It’s about individuality. There are some other things, such as loyalty to one’s kin—kin being those who we embrace as kin, not necessarily those of genetic relation. But even that varies between individuals, and groups.

Chaos.

Sometimes orderly, sometimes not.

I don’t know how much use any of this will be to you, if you insist on finding the Holy Grail of the Dark Side Methods and Codes and such, because those things simply don’t exist.

—Lady Qadira